1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of gyroscopic instrumentation and in particular to processing the information to improve accuracy of the gyroscopic data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Small, lightweight, and low-power devices are needed for accurate inertial sensing in a wide range of planned future NASA missions requiring guidance, control and inertial navigation functions (e.g., Mars missions, small body landing, rendezvous and docking, planetary ascent, precision landing, atmospheric entry, aeromaneuvering, aerocapture, etc.). and reduce mass and power requirements in emerging low-cost microspacecraft missions.
Emerging microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are known to have smaller size, lower weight and less power consumption than their discrete counterparts, and in many ways hold the potential for providing the desired capabilities. Unfortunately, present state-of-the-art MEMS devices have low-grade performance and cannot compete with established sensors in such high-accuracy application areas. However, one important aspect of MEMS devices is that they are small and can be fabricated in large numbers on a single chip.
One object of the invention is to create a “virtual sensor” by combining many individual inertial sensing devices (e.g., gyros/accelerometers) into a single effective device. The resulting device would have performance properties surpassing the properties of any individual device.
Allan, Ashby and Hodge attempted in 1998 with some success to combine three inexpensive Sports stopwatches D. W. Allan et.al., “Fine-Tuning Time In The Space Age,” IEEE Spectrum, pp. 42-51, March 1998.